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How to Start Running

I’ve been watching a lot of YouTube recently … mainly Casey Neistat, and he’s got me obsessed. I watch him every morning before work, when I’m on lunch, and when I’m waiting for my fiancée to come home in the evenings. He’s an absolute inspiration. Not only because of the amazing career he’s built for himself, but for his running.

Casey

From what I can gather from his vlogs he can easily bang out a 10 mile run around New York City and still vlog whilst walking, and not even seem tired or out of breath. The man’s a machine. He trains so hard, and works so hard in general, and he’s a great person to look up to. My Dad’s the same, he can power through a couple hours in the gym no problem, and my Grandad before him, but then there’s me.

I’ve never been fit

Growing up I was active, don’t get me wrong … but I was never one of the sporty kids. Didn’t like football (soccer), didn’t like rugby, definitely didn’t run, never played any other kind of sports – but I used to skate and cycle a lot, in between several hours playing Goldeneye on N64. Somehow I was never fat though – in fact, borderline too skinny at some points during high school. But then it all changed …

I turned 18, started drinking regularly, got an office job, and not much has changed since then really. I mean, I’ve changed, work’s changed, and so on … but I still enjoy a few (too many) social drinks with my buddies, and I still sit at a desk every day for at least 7 hours – and I’m starting to feel terrible.

Last year I lost about 42 pounds (or 3 stone in English money) to which I jokingly attribute to meeting my beautiful younger fiancée who keeps me on my toes (if you know what I mean) … but is probably down to a massive change in my life where I made the decision to be happy. I stopped eating – for the most part, I because really unsettled with work and my entire perspective changed, and change is stressful no matter how glorious a change it was, but nonetheless – I lost weight.

I vowed never to be fat again …

I felt great, bought new clothes three waist sizes down, slim fitting t-shirts, and so on … then, old habits came back.

A summary of the end of last year began with my then girlfriend’s gran dying. That was hard for her and the family, so getting over that involved a lot of distraction. Shortly after all that was over was my birthday, followed almost immediately with me asking Shannon to marry me, followed by celebrations because she said yes, followed by bonfire night, followed by Christmas, followed by post-Christmas blues, followed by buying a house, followed by our football team getting promoted, and basically we’ve been drinking, eating lots, and celebrating for about 10 months now.

Bottom line – I’m 1st (14 pounds) heavier than I want to be, and it’s time to sort it out. But how the hell do I do it?

Running is hard

I honestly find it really hard to run. The things that go through my head when I’m running annoy me – counting steps, counting breaths, wondering if I can just push to that next lamp post without being sick. My chest absolutely kills – I’ve supposedly got asthma, but I’m not too sure how much of that I buy into. I feel like my nose is going to explode most of the time and can normally taste blood. I don’t get it!

I see all these runners out there, and they’re loving it … they really look fresh, seem to be enjoying themselves, and I absolutely envy them.

I really want to like it. But surely everyone starts out like me? … It can’t just be me who’s struggling? So here’s my questions.

It can’t just be me who’s struggling?

Runners: How long does it take?

When you first start out – ground zero – totally unfit. Like … I can only run 400 yards before I absolutely have to stop and walk for a while. My splits are terrible. So if you could help, please me with these questions:

How long before it stops hurting to run? Like chest, heart, and head feel like they’re going to explode. Is that right?

How often should you go out?

Is starting out with 2 miles a realistic target to try and build to running the whole way?

When you first started, how long did it take you to reach a 2 mile run with no stops?

I really need to do this.

Current Status

For progress tracking, I want to give a starting gauge. My target it to lose 14 lbs. Of which I’ve currently lost 0.

I feel bloated, crappy, full of toxins, fatty, stodgy, and my mind is going crazy – probably down to chemical imbalances and lack of nutrition.

Yesterday I saw a video of a guy who lost sh*t loads of weight from water fasting for 28 days – I will not be doing this – but I have cut my food down to less than 600 calories a day, at least until the weekend, then I’ll do the same next Monday (and try stay below 1500 on Sat and Sun). I’m also drinking nothing but water until Saturday.

I’ve just completed my first run. It was 1.79 miles, it took me 24:28 mins, at a pace of 13:41 mins/mile.

My chest feels tight, my heart felt like it was going to explode, and my nose felt like it was bleeding. Muscle wise I don’t feel sore or even tired or challenged, it’s more just the core problems at the moment, and that’s what’s made me stop and come back in.

I’m writing this blog A) for advice, and B) for a statement of committal to this. I need to do it, and I will succeed – I just need a little advice from the professionals.